GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Two women who said they were blowing the whistle on an unscrupulous employer have now gone silent.

The women who lost their jobs at Priority Health claimed the insurance company was cooking the books when it came to Medicare filings, and filed a suit in Kent County Circuit Court which then moved to Federal Court because they say they were fired when they threatened to report the company.

Priority representatives called the allegations “outrageous.”

But court filings, originally expected to last until June of this year, stopped in January and the case has since been dismissed.

Jill Poffinbarger of Nelson Township and Amber Pope of Grattan Township filed the lawsuits after their jobs were “outsourced” by Priority Health where they worked as Medicare adjustment analysts.

Their duties were to determine and enter the codes for Medicare claims that were then submitted to the Centers for Medicare Services, known as CMS, which would then provide the payments for Priority’s Medicare claims.

Part of the women’s jobs included going over the submitted codes and finding areas where there was money due the agency not covered by the statistical analysis, or money that was overpaid. The over-payments had to be given back to the government and were known as “deletes” and the money the company was due was known as “adds.”

The lawsuit claimed that the women were told if did not like the direction the company was taking, they could leave.

The women claimed in the suit that they told supervisors there were “hundreds of deletes” that were being ignored. The two said they were required to report the situation to CMS.

On Feb. 3, 2011, the coders were told their services were no longer needed and it was not a reflection on job performance, but simply a business decision.

Poffinbarger had worked for Priority since 2000 and made about $48,000 per year, while Pope worked there since 1998 and earned about $42,000.

Priority Health attorney Anthony Comden and opposing attorney Eugenie Eardley, who filed the suit on behalf of Pope and Poffinbarger, would not reveal anything about whether a monetary settlement had been reached to end the lawsuit.

“The case has been resolved,” was what each attorney said.

There is no Federal or Kent County Circuit Court resolution of the case, but it is likely a non-disclosure clause was part of what, if any, settlement was reached.